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Is Apple planning on merging two of its biggest applications in the near future? According to a new rumor posted by Three Guys and a Podcast, iTunes and Safari may become one application before the year is out.

Apple has not done well in the battle for web browser supremacy. Currently, Safari doesn’t even have a 5% market share yet. Google’s Chrome, a relatively new web browser on the other hand, has already surpassed Safari with a 14% market share.

iTunes is one of Apple’s biggest moneymakers. With billions of dollars in yearly revenue, it’s currently the largest online music retailer in the world. So how might Apple bolster its flailing web browser? One solution may turn out to be pairing it with iTunes.

Rumors have been circulating for some time now that Apple would be expanding iTunes into the cloud. So far these rumors haven’t turned out to be true, but if Apple does plan on moving iTunes into the cloud, then the massive data center in North Carolina currently under construction, will surely play a pivotal part in the plan. It has yet to go online, but Apple obviously has plans for the site. Apple also purchased the Lala music streaming site in 2009, but they have not used the technology for anything as of yet.

If Apple does merge iTunes and Safari, it would be an unprecedented event. iTunes and Safari are both valuable commodities individually and squeezing them into one application doesn’t make much sense. iTunes already feels rather crowded with so much content available. With music, videos, apps, books and podcasts readily available, just to name a few, merging all of that with Safari would just make for an even more cluttered application. For a company that prides itself on minimalism, this would be counter to that philosophy. Apple has a good thing going with iTunes. Hopefully, no one at Apple will be foolish enough to mess with the golden goose.